A surer Assad reaches out to US to aid needy Syria

People walk past a picture of President Bashar Assad, center, with a writing in Arabic:" Bashar Assad, President of the Syrian Arab Republic," in Damascus, Syria, Wednesday, Feb. 11, 2009. It's impossible to miss the telltale signs of an authoritarian regime in Damascus _ President Bashar Assad staring down at the city from thousands of portraits, the media treating him as a divinity and critics are jailed for speaking out against his regime. At the same time Assad is leading the biggest economic opening-up in years and talking openly about his desire for peace with Israel. So, while he's not about to meet Western demands for political reform, he may be better positioned to make a deal on other issues. (AP Photo/Bassem Tellawi)
— AP

People walk past a picture of President Bashar Assad, center, with a writing in Arabic:" Bashar Assad, President of the Syrian Arab Republic," in Damascus, Syria, Wednesday, Feb. 11, 2009. It's impossible to miss the telltale signs of an authoritarian regime in Damascus _ President Bashar Assad staring down at the city from thousands of portraits, the media treating him as a divinity and critics are jailed for speaking out against his regime. At the same time Assad is leading the biggest economic opening-up in years and talking openly about his desire for peace with Israel. So, while he's not about to meet Western demands for political reform, he may be better positioned to make a deal on other issues. (AP Photo/Bassem Tellawi)
/ AP

DAMASCUS, Syria 
During eight years as Syria's president, Bashar Assad has grown more sure in his grip on power – ordering a crackdown on dissent, letting a personality cult bloom around him and opening up the economy after decades of isolation.

Now Assad is eager for a breakthrough in long strained relations with the United States, hoping for U.S. help in boosting a still weak economy and for American mediation in direct peace talks with Israel.

President Barack Obama is sending the highest-level administration officials in four years to Damascus to sound out Assad's seriousness about dialogue, possibly as soon as Saturday.

They will find a president far different from the one who rose to office in 2000. At the time, Assad was considered a weak successor to his late father – longtime dictator Hafez Assad. During his first years, Bashar Assad avoided the limelight and told Syrians not to display his picture. He was widely thought to be dominated by an old guard of his father's hard-line loyalists.

Today, the 43-year-old leader exhibits a confident strength. He has constructed an authoritarian regime in which the media treats him as a near divinity, tens of thousands of his pictures are on display and critics are jailed for speaking out.

"Bashar Assad has gradually reduced much of the influence of the old guard without ever having to confront them," said Anthony Cordesman, a former Pentagon analyst now with the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. "No one on the outside can gauge his strength, but people in Syria now seem to take him far more seriously."

Assad has begun to dismantle his father's socialist legacy. Better relations with the U.S. could bring a new push for economic liberalization, in which Assad has loosened the reins on banking, sought to attract foreign investment, and encouraged tourism and private education.

Downtown Damascus now has trendy boutiques where a pair of shoes sell for twice the nation's average monthly wage of about $200. Western chain cafes fill up every night with the rich and connected, armed with cellular phones and laptops. Streets are no longer filled with battered 1970s cars, but with the latest models from Japan and Europe.

After the widespread displays of Assad's images, the most seen picture in Damascus is one showing a brunette lying on her stomach and looking seductively at passers-by from billboards advertising shampoo.

A decade ago, Syrians went to Lebanon to shop and bank, and visitors brought their own toilet paper.

"There is hardly anything that you cannot find in Syria now," said businessman Samer Ayoub. At his shop in the upscale Abu Romanah district, he sells designer Italian shoes for an average of $300 a pair. "I won't say business is great, it's medium," he said.

Yet beneath the glitz lies an economy with many problems, and Assad may have decided he needs the West to move forward.

Syria's vital oil exports have been hit hard by lower output and slumping world prices. A persistent drought has forced the country to import wheat and other staples after years of self sufficiency.